There is just one Diamond with more than 50 caps, captain Caitlin Bassett, in Lisa Alexander’s squad.
Photograph: Mike Owen/Getty Images

With Gabi Simpson and Kim Ravaillion overlooked in the Australian Diamonds squad for July’s Netball World Cup, the reigning champions are looking light on international experience – historically, worryingly light.

As midcourters Simpson and Ravaillion – both part of last year’s Commonwealth Games squad and Ravaillion the triumphant 2015 World Cup side – exit, they take exactly 100 Tests of experience with them, leaving the Diamonds with just 338 total caps. That’s 489 fewer Tests than England and 393 fewer than the Silver Ferns.

Diamonds set for Netball World Cup squad shake-up

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In the 12-strong squad confirmed by coach Lisa Alexander on Thursday morning, there is just one Diamond with more than 50 caps, captain Caitlin Bassett, who sits on 90 and is coming back from a serious arm injury.

The next most-experienced player is her perennial understudy, Vixen shooter Caitlin Thwaites, on 47, and then it’s daylight to defender April Brandley, who has 34.

The Roses, on the other hand, have seven players with more than 50 Tests, including six over 80. The Kiwis have six players with more than 50 caps, with four exceeding 100.

Only three Diamonds travelling to Liverpool – Bassett, Thwaites and midcourt replacement Paige Hadley, who has 19 caps – have been to a World Cup before.

By comparison, Australia had 451 caps and seven athletes who had been at the previous tournament prior to Sydney 2015. For the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014, it was 432.

While experience isn’t everything in netball, at big tournaments, it’s often cool-headed veterans who deliver victory, as was the case with Laura Geitz in 2015 or Silver Fern shooter Irene van Dyk at the 2003 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica, when New Zealand beat Australia.

Seven of the team who lost to the Roses in last year’s Commonwealth Games final – the two Caitlins, plus vice captain Liz Watson, shooter Steph Wood and defenders Courtney Bruce, Jo Weston and Brandley, have been given a chance to exact revenge on England’s home soil.

But the combinations are still building after the mass exodus following that Commonwealth Games loss, which saw Geitz, Susan Pettitt, Sharni Layton and Madi Browne retire. That cut a total of 249 games of international experience.

The last four in the Liverpool squad – shooter Gretel Tippett, midcourters Jamie-Lee Price and Kelsey Browne and young defender Sarah Klau – have never played at a World Cup or Commonwealth Games.

All except Klau were part of the January Quad Series in the UK, which Australia won despite losing to England in the last Test in London.

Twenty-four-year-old Klau, who has been a standout for the NSW Swifts this Super Netball season, replaces Emily Mannix from that tour. Klau has never worn the green and gold.

Her Swifts teammate Hadley, who was part of the 2015 World Cup team, but missed last year’s Games, forced her way in from outside the squad through domestic form that was simply too good to ignore.

That meant there wasn’t room for Ravaillion, who withdrew from national duty in September citing exhaustion. Many had expected the experienced centre to make the cut after solid form for Collingwood so far this season.

The omission of Simpson, who was vice captain in the recent Quad Series, is the real shock. While the Firebirds captain has been nursing a hip strain in recent weeks, she showed against the Adelaide Thunderbirds at the weekend how valuable she is, picking up four intercepts and two deflections. She nearly single-handedly dragged her side over the line.

Is the injury worse than being reported? Was Alexander concerned about taking a specialist WD who really doesn’t play anywhere else? Is splitting the load between Hadley and Price, and maybe even Brandley, more appealing?

While Simpson’s experience and leadership will no doubt be sorely missed, the addition of Klau, Hadley and Price delivers an X factor which the Diamonds sometimes lack. None of the three are afraid of the “tough stuff” and each can be thrown on in and surprise their opponents, who won’t know a lot about them.

Maybe that unpredictability will see Australian netball’s “beautiful headache” – how the arduous selection process has been characterised – develop into a mighty migraine for the world’s best teams in Liverpool in about 40 days.